Man pleads guilty to ATM-skimming thefts

Michael P. Mayko

Updated 10:57 pm, Monday, August 19, 2013

NEW HAVEN -- All it took was a pinhole camera and a magnetic-tape recorder, and Ionut-Iulian Vlad and his band of conspirators were able to steal $150,470 from Bank of America customers using ATMs in lower Fairfield County.

On Monday, Vlad, a 29-year-old Romanian national, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud during his appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis. Under the terms of a plea agreement worked out between Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Morabito and Jonathan Einhorn, Vlad's court-appointed lawyer, the defendant will face up to 41 months in prison when he is sentenced in November. Once he completes his sentence, he will be deported.

Vlad has been in custody since his March 2 arrest by Stamford police.

Police said the skimming devices were installed on ATMs at Bank of America branches in Greenwich, Norwalk, Stamford and Wallingford between December 2012 and March 2, 2013.

Investigators determined that Vlad installed one of the devices at the Wallingford branch on Feb. 3 and removed a device from the Greenwich branch, at 240 Greenwich Ave., on Feb. 9.

The skimming device is inserted into the ATM. It then serves as the slot for an ATM card. The skimmer has a very tiny camera which photographs customers typing in their identification numbers. It also has a tape recorder that captures the information from the back of the victim's card. The devices were so well made that they were undetectable to customers.

Once the thieves have stolen information, they transfer it onto a new ATM card they create. That card is then used to withdraw cash.

In this case, investigators said Bank of America accounts in Greenwich, Norwalk, Stamford and Wallingford were accessed. In February and March, the thieves stole $150,470, according to court documents.

So far, Vlad is the only one arrested in connection with the scam. But local police and federal agents previously arrested other Romanian groups operating similar scams in Fairfield County.

Last year, Marian Cariavan and Mustafa Timur received federal prison terms after they admitted to conspiring to install similar devices on three ATM machines at JP Morgan Chase branches in Greenwich and Stamford.

Two years ago, Ion Constantine, another Romanian national, was sentenced to 46 months in prison for scamming ATM customers at People's United Bank in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich and elsewhere.